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When that revision came up for a decision last October, the synod completely reversed the church's traditional stand. "The Dutch Reformed Church is convinced that the application of apartheid as a political and social system which injures people and unjustly benefits one group above & another cannot be accepted on Christian ethical grounds since it conflicts with the principle of neighborly love and righteousness." The church declared its doors open to all races, and it elected the liberal Heyns as its moderator. This does not mean that the church has become or is about to become fully integrated (or even partially integrated). In the gold-mining town of Germiston, the Rev. Pieter Dumas admits that some of his white parishioners have dropped out since a colored man was elected an elder for the first time. In Pretoria some 3,000 people are talking of starting a new church for whites only.
But Heyns believes that the church's new course is the only one possible. "We have been for 300 years in this country in a certain position of strength and of being able to dictate things," says he. "Now I would say that very, very suddenly in a nation's history we aren't the guardians anymore. We are partners. And how to act as a responsible partner, that's the challenge."
The political dissenters. One of the most closely watched races in next week's election pits Denis Worrall, who resigned as Ambassador to London to challenge his former leaders, against Chris Heunis, the Minister of Constitutional Development, who is charged with devising "reforms" that will somehow make the remaining elements of apartheid more palatable. "Different groups and people exist as communities," argues Heunis. "The Group Areas Act ((which segregates residential areas)) makes it possible for them to live as communities."
Worrall emphatically rejects such reasoning. "All remnants of apartheid must be abolished," says he. "The government is misreading the public's readiness for fundamental change. The country yearns for a shared vision of the future, but the government's reform program has shut down. White South Africans of all parties are tired of the government not facing its task. Only the abolition of apartheid will create the environment for negotiations."
Despite Worrall's optimism, recent polls show him trailing Heunis by 10 percentage points. But they also show that many agree with his argument. A survey in six key urban constituencies reported that 44% of the voters questioned believed the government had not kept its promises of reform, 43.4% thought the Nationalists had been in power too long and a surprising 51.2% favored scrapping the Group Areas Act.
Others are joining the fray. The most notable is Wynand Malan (no relation & to the founder of apartheid), who announced that he was resigning from the Nationalists to campaign for his own seat as an independent. "The National Party finds itself in a stage where it is losing its ideology and yet is unable to replace it with a policy," said Malan. "I did not clash with the National Party, I clashed with my conscience. And in the end, conscience wins."